Multichannel Speaking Automaton
Early prototype of speech synthesis machine
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Multichannel Speaking Automaton (MUSA) was an early prototype of Speech Synthesis machine started in 1975.
Description
It consisted of a stand-alone computer hardware and a specialized software that implemented a diphone-synthesis technology. It was one of the first real-time TTS systems. It was able to read Italian in intellegibile robotic voice and also to sing managing up to 8 synthesis channels in parallel thanks to Linear predictive coding technology.[1] In 1978 it was released, after the building of a working prototype,[2] a 45" rpm audio disk containing some trial content of such synthesis, including the song "Fra Martino Campanaro" in "a cappella" (multiple voices) style, attached to some commercial reviews.[3] The experiment was conducted by CSELT, Turin, Italy and was led by Giulio Modena.[4]